Metro connections in New York will soon run longer at night, transit officials announced Monday, which is a step toward the full reopening of city life amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Beginning next Monday, the subway system will only close for cleaning from 2 a.m. to 4 p.m., instead of the current daily closure from 1 a.m. to 5 p.m., officials said during a news conference. They described the move as the start of a ‘phased reopening’, although they did not say when trains would run 24 hours again.
“New York is starting to get back to normal,” said Sarah Feinberg, interim president of the New York City Transit Authority, which operates the subways.
The regular overnight closure – the first in the system’s history – began last May when the pandemic tore through New York. Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, the Metropolitan Transit Authority, which oversees transportation in New York City, has ordered the nocturnal closure of the city’s famous 24-hour subway system to disinfect the entire system, a move that, according to him was needed to reduce the spread of the virus.
Officials said the trains would be cleaned at night.
The pandemic has reduced the finances of cities across the country and eroded their transport agencies – in some smaller cities new systems may be forced to shut down completely. In Minneapolis, commuter train management has declined by more than 98 percent year-over-year compared to the previous year, according to the city’s transit agency.
On Monday, Washington’s Metrorail reduced its three – line speed limit during rush hour to ‘better match customers’ travel patterns during the pandemic’ and to manage costs, the transportation agency said in a statement. Operating hours will remain unchanged, although management on the Metrorail has declined nearly 90 percent from pre-pandemic levels.
In New York, Mr. Cuomo and other officials earlier said the metro would only reopen at the end of the pandemic. The phased opening appears to be a new approach.
In recent months, the governor has come under fire from transit activists who have argued that the closure is harming thousands of essential workers who have been forced to find alternative ways to travel at night.
About 80 percent of the overnight metro riders are colored, and a third are low-income, activists and several New York councilors said in a news release last week that Cuomo should restore the service.
As icy weather plagued the city this winter, supporters of homeless New Yorkers have also expressed concern about the strike.
For decades, the city’s sprawling subway system has also provided shelter for the last resort for thousands of homeless New Yorkers who are wary of the city’s often crowded and sometimes violent shelters and prefer to seek sanctuaries in subways that operate 24 hours per day.
Homeless people living on the streets now face a dangerous mix of winter weather and a lack of indoor public spaces, such as metro stations, trains and fast food restaurants, which once a night offered a respite.
Critics of the nocturnal closures have also noted that scientists long ago concluded that the coronavirus spreads primarily through inhaled droplets, not through surfaces. There is little evidence that infected surfaces can spread the virus.
Mr. However, Cuomo said Monday the cleanup is important.
Clean trains can also help the transport agency lure riders back, as people return to work but remain worried about full seats. The management of the metro system has seen about 30 percent of pre-pandemic levels in recent months.
Danny Pearlstein, a spokesman for the Riders Alliance, a transit group, praised the decision to shorten the nightly closures. But he called on the governor to fully reopen the metro system.
“Tens of thousands of riders are dependent on a metro service overnight,” he said. ‘The governor’s partial reopening is an important step forward. Riders will continue to reopen in light of the MTA’s clear ability to clean trains and the urgent need for more attention to the system to keep New Yorkers safe. ”